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The Marinated Meeple (1853 KP) rated Above and Below in Tabletop Games
Mar 20, 2018
The Art is exceptional (3 more)
the gameplay itself
the characters you use to build your village
The story aspect for exploring
I Love this game.... Ryan Laukat does amazing work.
This game is a great mix of a lot of ingenious aspects. You are leader of a village, and you have people in your village that not only have different skills and also look different. You want to utilize them to do the things they are good at, but just like in life sometimes you have to send a suboptimal person to accomplish something the village needs. And the exploration aspect is so much fun. each time to go exploring is a different short story predicated on the drawing of a card. then then you have to make a choice about what to do on that journey, and it might have dire consequences or or it might be light and fluffy. So it's sometimes hard to make a decision based on how many resources to send down to make sure everything works out, but then you can't do as much on the surface. The game is relatively short and makes us want to keep playing. which is the sign of a great game. Also check out near and far which is the sequel to this game.

Kevin Wilson (179 KP) rated Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice in Video Games
Jul 9, 2018
Incredible story (3 more)
Fun combat
Amazing audio
Great environment design
Puzzles repetitive and sometimes too confusing (2 more)
Short game
I needed to constantly have breaks
Incredible game worth a play
This is an incredible game. It is graphically beautiful and the story is fantastic. The acting is by far some of the best you will find and you can see the developers took their time to make sure that mental illness was portrayed correctly. Because of this and the audio I felt I had to take breaks from time to time as I felt emotionally drained and exhausted after a while. Because of this even for a short game it took me a few days.
The collectibles were interesting and the lore was interesting to me. The combat was fun but I found the puzzles to be very hit and miss. They felt like a chore sometimes and too challenging at times.
The audio is where this game excels greatly and it is strongly recommended to play the game with headphones to get the full effect. The environments were gorgeous to look at.
Overall I'd recommend this to anyone and this did make me think a lot about it and what it symbolises days after finishing.
The collectibles were interesting and the lore was interesting to me. The combat was fun but I found the puzzles to be very hit and miss. They felt like a chore sometimes and too challenging at times.
The audio is where this game excels greatly and it is strongly recommended to play the game with headphones to get the full effect. The environments were gorgeous to look at.
Overall I'd recommend this to anyone and this did make me think a lot about it and what it symbolises days after finishing.

Sarah (126 KP) rated YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream in Apps
Aug 14, 2018
I have a love-hate relationship with YouTube.
I love it for how useful it can be when you want to learn to do something as there's nearly always a walkthrough video from someone - handy for me when I'm trying to figure out a tricky stitch or section in a knitting or crochet pattern.
I hate how apparently addictive life hack videos, videos of other people playing games or "unboxing" videos are to kids, haha! While it can be helpful when I need to get something done urgently, I feel like I can recite some of these off by heart...
In all seriousness, it is a great app. As I don't use it so much myself, I sometimes feel like the UI could be a bit more intuitive (I seem to get stuck in a loop on my phone app sometimes), but it's clearly simple enough for kids to use, soooo....
It can be hard to restrict inappropriate content because it isn't always labelled as such, but this is an issue on any platform with user-generated content and just means that as parents/guardians/responsible adults we need to be more aware of what children are accessing and to limit it accordingly and which is, after all, our job!
I love it for how useful it can be when you want to learn to do something as there's nearly always a walkthrough video from someone - handy for me when I'm trying to figure out a tricky stitch or section in a knitting or crochet pattern.
I hate how apparently addictive life hack videos, videos of other people playing games or "unboxing" videos are to kids, haha! While it can be helpful when I need to get something done urgently, I feel like I can recite some of these off by heart...
In all seriousness, it is a great app. As I don't use it so much myself, I sometimes feel like the UI could be a bit more intuitive (I seem to get stuck in a loop on my phone app sometimes), but it's clearly simple enough for kids to use, soooo....
It can be hard to restrict inappropriate content because it isn't always labelled as such, but this is an issue on any platform with user-generated content and just means that as parents/guardians/responsible adults we need to be more aware of what children are accessing and to limit it accordingly and which is, after all, our job!

Jake (52 KP) rated Words of Radiance: Book Two of The Stormlight Archive in Books
Jul 25, 2019
No spoilers below.
4 stars: Super long, sometimes details about dumb stuff where I wish I had more details about other stuff
4 stars: sometimes hard to imagine some of the scenery.
4 stars: Interludes? what the heck?
5 stars: every 80-100 pages has some sweet art that helps you visualize things
5 stars: incredible world and intriguing story and characters
5 stars: good ups and downs - mix of excitement, sadness, awesomeness, character fails and character growth
1 star (kind of joking but not really): 3rd book isn't out yet!! Plus I have to buy some Arcanum Unbounded to read book 2.5? NO WAY. I'm saving up for the 3rd book haha
overall rating: 5 stars
I would like my wife to read these but the stories are just so dang LONG. I bet if all 3 books were released in an abridged format that I'd re-read them (and get her to read them for once) and it would be so fun to get down to the nitty gritty without going through 1000+ pages per book (although some people are in to that). In this case, I didn't mind it too much, as the writing is well done and the story is awesome. Kaladin is my bro!
4 stars: Super long, sometimes details about dumb stuff where I wish I had more details about other stuff
4 stars: sometimes hard to imagine some of the scenery.
4 stars: Interludes? what the heck?
5 stars: every 80-100 pages has some sweet art that helps you visualize things
5 stars: incredible world and intriguing story and characters
5 stars: good ups and downs - mix of excitement, sadness, awesomeness, character fails and character growth
1 star (kind of joking but not really): 3rd book isn't out yet!! Plus I have to buy some Arcanum Unbounded to read book 2.5? NO WAY. I'm saving up for the 3rd book haha
overall rating: 5 stars
I would like my wife to read these but the stories are just so dang LONG. I bet if all 3 books were released in an abridged format that I'd re-read them (and get her to read them for once) and it would be so fun to get down to the nitty gritty without going through 1000+ pages per book (although some people are in to that). In this case, I didn't mind it too much, as the writing is well done and the story is awesome. Kaladin is my bro!

Jake (52 KP) rated Sky Raiders (Five Kingdoms, #1) in Books
Jul 25, 2019
Really fun kids adventure book. I had a hard time explaining it to my wife but ultimately I realized it reminded me a lot of Harry Potter in that:
1. The main character is basically a kid (although a mature one so that he can be relatable to more age groups)
2. There is magic
3. A lot of the story focuses on Friendship during some kind of trial
4. Set in a fantastical, sometimes quirky world with fun, interesting, and sometimes spooky characters
5. Interesting story and fun premise
I really enjoy the aspects of friendship and worldbuilding: Brandon Mull did a great job of interweaving different characters and their personalities into a complex world with an interesting plotline.
Rarely does the book get boring or slow and rarely could I put it down. Sure, maybe the book was in the 12-year old section of the library but to be honest I haven't had this much fun in a series for a long time. If you're into those 5 bullet points I mentioned above and you enjoyed Harry Potter, I would strongly recommend this series. Still waiting for the 5th book to come out in late 2017 so that will definitely be a book I pick up! Enjoy!
1. The main character is basically a kid (although a mature one so that he can be relatable to more age groups)
2. There is magic
3. A lot of the story focuses on Friendship during some kind of trial
4. Set in a fantastical, sometimes quirky world with fun, interesting, and sometimes spooky characters
5. Interesting story and fun premise
I really enjoy the aspects of friendship and worldbuilding: Brandon Mull did a great job of interweaving different characters and their personalities into a complex world with an interesting plotline.
Rarely does the book get boring or slow and rarely could I put it down. Sure, maybe the book was in the 12-year old section of the library but to be honest I haven't had this much fun in a series for a long time. If you're into those 5 bullet points I mentioned above and you enjoyed Harry Potter, I would strongly recommend this series. Still waiting for the 5th book to come out in late 2017 so that will definitely be a book I pick up! Enjoy!

Mothergamer (1586 KP) rated Nancy Drew in TV
Feb 5, 2020
I read the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid and loved them, so I was pretty interested in checking out the show. I am really enjoying it so far. The characters are interesting each with their own strengths and skills that they bring to the group. Nancy herself is very smart, but I like that she's also not perfect. She makes mistakes and her friends aren't afraid to call her out on it and eventually she does own up to it and tries to make it right. It makes her feel like a fully developed character. The main mystery is great with a few extra side mysteries thrown in. I am enjoying the spooky ghost story elements to it too and there have been a couple episodes where the show scared me with it. Sometimes the pacing feels a little slow with the writing and it can feel very drawn out at times, but it doesn't detract too much from how good the show is. The cast is really good and they bring the characters to life. I'm enjoying it and always looking forward to the next episode to see where the story goes.

Sarah (7800 KP) rated Thoroughbreds (2017) in Movies
Apr 28, 2020
A little pretentious
This film had a limited run when it was released at the cinema, and I’ve been interested to see it ever since. I’d heard good things about it, however I’m afraid to say it didn’t live up to expectations.
This is what I’d class as a pretentious arty type film, and I’m really not a big fan of films like this. There’s lots of overly dramatic music that sometimes works, but sometimes just seems ridiculously out of place. There’s also a lot of lingering shots of the characters doing barely anything that would be fine for a minute, but instead drag out for far too long. Despite this, this film does have some good points. The acting is fantastic, and the script is very smart and clever and surprisingly funny at times - the scene with the girls and Tim in the car was especially funny. The plot is a basic one, although I do feel like the story wasn’t entirely unpredictable although it was enjoyable. And fortunately it has a very short run time, which I was grateful for with all the irritating pretentious music and shots,
Overall this film was watchable, but I think it could’ve tried to be a little less pretentious.
This is what I’d class as a pretentious arty type film, and I’m really not a big fan of films like this. There’s lots of overly dramatic music that sometimes works, but sometimes just seems ridiculously out of place. There’s also a lot of lingering shots of the characters doing barely anything that would be fine for a minute, but instead drag out for far too long. Despite this, this film does have some good points. The acting is fantastic, and the script is very smart and clever and surprisingly funny at times - the scene with the girls and Tim in the car was especially funny. The plot is a basic one, although I do feel like the story wasn’t entirely unpredictable although it was enjoyable. And fortunately it has a very short run time, which I was grateful for with all the irritating pretentious music and shots,
Overall this film was watchable, but I think it could’ve tried to be a little less pretentious.

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Akward (448 KP) Aug 4, 2018
The Marinated Meeple (1853 KP) Aug 4, 2018